Praise be our Goddess Madoka, for She died for our sins and gave us hope

Archive for Real Life

SO SHINY

Don’t worry guys, I’m not dead yet. It’s just that I’ve been waaaaaaaaaaay too addicted to FFXIV:ARR and combined with the fact I just don’t feel that much passion for anime anymore, it created a sort of perfect storm where I’ve practically almost stopped watching things.

So yeah, I don’t think I’ll be blogging stuff on the rate I was at these past 2-3 years. I’m not sure how much longer FFXIV:ARR will have its hold on me, but once I get sick of it, regular postings will probably be back up. Once it does, I’ll probably catch up with the stuff hanging so far, then move to the new season…. but I can’t guarantee when it’ll be.

Well, it’s a phase I guess. I haven’t quit blogging yet, but I just don’t feel like doing anything else in my free time other than adventuring in Eorzea in the time being. Heck, I just only realized it’s been almost 2 weeks since I made post so yeah, here’s why.

Slowpoke accusations be excused, I finally got to watch Inception on the big screen last night.

It was so utterly brilliant and mind-bending. Half of my mind is currently inaccessible, pondering and de-constructing the whole movie in my background of my subconscious; a huge problem at work. But then again, this always happens to me whenever I finish a story so brilliant and cathartic at the same time. It’s exactly the same state-of-mind I was stuck in when I first finished Evangelion*1 (up to EoE).

Inception is one of those rare productions that not only is brilliantly layered and steeped with imagery, it also manages to touch out to something innately in my soul.

An example is the time-dilation effect in the movie is something that I experience daily, as a master of catnapping. I always wake up feeling as if I’ve just experienced a period of time a few times much longer than the real duration of my naps, and I daresay many will find that similar. Inception using that as a central plot device really resonated with me.

This brings me to a book I believe that really should be read in accompaniment to watching Inception; The Stories of Ibis. The idea of layered “realities”*2 that is shared between both works offers a really interesting complementary view between each other, yet it is amazingly contrasting in origins. More importantly, while “inception” is the device driving the plot in the eponymous movie, Stories of Ibis ends with the inception of an idea; both works masterfully using the concept as a cathartic device.

Ah, but enough of the literary-wannabe comparisons. That is the problem I have with my own string-of-consciousness writing. The really appealing part of Inception is just how it captures my imaginations so easily, leaving me changed yet still feeling essentially same apart from the feeling I’ve had a new dimension opened up to me. A new angle and view that feels it has been a part of myself for a long time, but only just noticed it was there.

Inception is utterly brilliant, smart and left a parasite of an idea and worldview in my mind; staying rooted in my mind and making it’s indelible excellence in it. It is an example of works that transcend boundaries; of media, enviroments and even plot holes. The fact that the ending is kept ambiguous*3 is icing on the cake.

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1One of the interesting similarities I noticed with Inception and Evangelion is the concept of a whitespace – a Limbo – that is the depths of our subconscious and can be molded and shaped by the characters themselves. It’s also interesting to note that whenever characters in Inception dive down to Limbo, they end up on a shoreline, which instantly recalls to me the memories of EoE’s enigmatic ending. Not actually a surprising similarity but Christopher Nolan uses it in a more utilitarian manner than Anno did, although Anno’s creations arguably had a more grounded reality compared to Inception, relatively speaking.

2Forgive the liberal usage of “reality” here, but in a sense, the ideas are relatively similar between both works. The dreams in Inception are the mind’s subconscious constructs, while in Ibis the Layers are also similar excepting that it is created by the AI’s own self-conscious programmings based on their learning experiences. I really should finish that Ibis article languishing in my Drafts folder for a month or two, by now.

3I believe that the top eventually stopped spinning. I must add that the totem idea was severely underutilized in Inception.

Wind-up Bird Chronicles, Kafka on the Shore, After Dark, Dance Dance Dance and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. All five for less than RM 150. Also Six Suspects, Tale of Two Cities and Sherlock Holmes.

Excuse me if I don’t blog as much in the next 2 months or so. Too bad Norwegian Wood sold out. Should’ve bought them all on the first day of the Popular Bookfest. But still, awesome discounts are awesome…..

After a year of preparation, with much hard work, blood, sweat and tears, DaiCon’s finally over. I’ve just about only finished with the hall clean-up and woke up after getting a real night’s sleep after 5 days.

I’ve gotta admit, right up til and during the event, I still had my qualms about pulling such a big event off and when the concert started I still had a feeling this is all in a dream. Now that it’s all over, and after I’ve had a good night’s rest, only it is sinking in that we did pull it off.

I’m happy that the Minorin concert went without a hitch and pretty much nearly everyone who went had good things to say about it. Of course I do realise the event wasn’t perfect and there are a great many grumblings about it (I’m not the mineral water guy in case any more retards think I am) but what’s happened has happened.

It was also great that I managed to finally meet up with tj_han and DarkMirage, both of them bloggers that I still do read and respect. Owen_S and Faye also made their way here, as well as finally getting to meet j1mone and danie. Only thing I regret was that I couldn’t actually spend a lot of time with them thanks to me having the handle the event.

Of course there’s still a ton of work to finish off, post mortems, reports and such, but I’m glad to have been part of DaiCon. I can’t really say anything about the future plans for the event now, but I sure wouldn’t mind signing up for it for a second time.